Safety barrier post

ABSTRACT

A safety barrier post apparatus adapted for the rapid installation of a safety barrier when used in connection with cables and which may also have kick rails attached thereto. A post-supporting clamp is adapted for easy attachment to a concrete slab and for the quick attachment of a vertical post and toe rail. The post has cable holders allowing cables to be held to each post in a secure manner when the cables are taut but easily installed or removed from the bracket without threading an end of the cable through each bracket. Special supports are provided for corner and gate posts and the present apparatus may be used as in a stair rail safety barrier.

United States Patent Malcolm K. Smith 97 Hilldale Avenue, Orrnond Beach, Fla. 32074 [21] Appl. No. 296

[22] Filed Jan. 2, 1970 [45] Patented Jan. 4, 1972 [72] Inventor [54] SAFETY BARRIER POST [50] Field of Search [5 6] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,280,355 10/1918 Zimmerman 256/53 3,351,311 11/1967 Melfi 256/65 3,480,257 11/1969 Boumetal. 256/65X FORElGN PATENTS I 1,479,408 3/1967 France 256/65 220,794 5/1968 Sweden 256/59 Primary ExaminerDennis L. Taylor Attorney-Duckw0rth and Hobby ABSTRACT: A safety barrier post apparatus adapted for the rapid installation of a safety barrier when used in connection with cables and which may also have kick rails attached thereto. A post-supporting clamp is adapted for easy attachment to a concrete slab and for the quick attachment of a vertical post and toe rail. The post has cable holders allowing cables to be held to each post in a secure manner when the cables are taut but easily installed or removed from the bracket without threading an end of the cable through each bracket. Special supports are provided for corner and gate posts and the present apparatus may be used as in a stair rail safety barri- PATENTEDJAN 41912 $632,089

SHEET 1 OF 2 FIG. 1

MA LOOLM K. SMITH INVENTOR.

FIG. IO

SAFETY BARRIER POST BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to safety barriers and more particularly to safety barriers adapted for placement along concrete slabs and along stairways in multistory buildings during construction to protect workmen and equipment, and the like, from falling. An easily movable, yet sturdy, safety barrier clamp and post are provided for use in the installation of a safety barrier, and may be broken down for easy portability between jobs and between floors. It is also considered in one embodiment to be readily usable for safety barricades on stairways and nonuniform slabs or objects.

2. Description of the Prior Art In the past it has been common practice not to provide safety barriers but safety codes are generally requiring barricades and safety barriers around areas being worked on above ground level, especially during the construction of multistoried buildings to prevent workmen from falling from the upper stories and also to prevent the accidental dropping of materials or equipment with the potential dangers to other workmen and equipment below. Because of the great dangers involved, it is common to provide in building codes for requiring barricades or other safety barriers and require certain standards to be met in these barriers. However, it is still common to provide barriers built from inexpensive lumber and assembled at the work site or by simply nailing lumber to the slabs. These prior art barriers, however, are not uniformly constructed and are made from the cheapest lumber available which is adversely affected and often weakened by the rain, dampness, swelling and drying in the sun during the construction work so that the strength of these barricades may be somewhat affected by time and by the quality of the construction in placing them in, as well as the materials used. Additionally, this requires close inspection and the waste of manpower and materials which are not generally reusable.

To overcome some of these prior art problems, it has been suggested to provide a C-clamp such as shown in US. Patent No. 3,351,31 l by Melfi for Support of Guard-Rails in which a post has been connected to the C-clamp and then to have metal guard-rails which are attachable to the post by wing nuts, or the like.

it has also been suggested in US. Pat. No. 3,439,898 by Cleveland, et al., for Safety Barrier and Barrier Fence, to make posts which may be expanded or telescoped to apply pressure to a bottom and top slab and tightening cables between these posts. This of course assumes working between a pair of slabs as on a multistoried building and none of these prior art devices are readily available for use for safety barriers for stairways in the process of being constructed.

Accordingly, it is an advantage of the present invention to have a flexible and portable safety barrier clamp which may be easily and quickly installed and economically manufactured, and which is adapted for easy installation but which may be readily adapted for use with materials which may be commonly found on construction sites and which may be adapted for installation on nonuniform surfaces such as precast stairs. It is also an advantage of the present invention to provide a safety barrier which can have easily installed kick rails and with post holders for cable adapted to the cable, connected between the ends thereof without having to pass the end of the cable through an eyelet, or the like.

Finally, another advantage of the present invention provides for reenforced posts for use on corner supports and gate supporting posts for use with a safety barrier system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A movable safety barrier clamp and post is provided for quick installation at building sites, and the like, for use in the erection of temporary safety barricades for stairways and along the perimeter of slabs in multistoried buildings during construction and repair. A post support is provided having a clamping means for clamping the post support to a slab or other object and having a post holder for attaching a post to the support means. A post is provided which may be easily attached to the post support and which has cable holders attached thereto for maintaining a cable to the post. This cable holder is formed with an opening for the cable to pass through but has portions forming a second side opening whereby the elongated cable can be inserted and removed between the ends of the cable without having to first slide one end of the cable through the cable holder. This side opening has offset portions to prevent the cable from escaping from the holder when the cable is taut. The clamping means for the slab advantageously provides a quick clamp-on portion and a tightening portion of the clamp so that the post support means may be quickly attached to the slab or other object and tightened, as desired. The safety barrier post of the present invention may have a telescoping upper end for attaching to an over head slab for additional support for a gate and may also have a corner bracing means in which a separate clamp is clamped to the slab with the post extending obliquely to the safety barrier post and attached thereto for additional support.

Finally the post support may have guides or a slot for attaching a kick rail between pairs of the posts which kick rails may conveniently be lumber such as 2 4s or 2X6s.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be apparent from a study of the written description and the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a sectional view of several posts in accordance with the present invention, shown connected to a slab and forming a safety barricade;

FIG. 2 is a figure taken along line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view taken along line 44 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 5 is a view taken along line 55 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of one embodiment of a cable holder;

FIG. 7 is a second embodiment of a cable holder;

FIG. 8 is a side view of a cable holder of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 shows a second embodiment of a post holder portion; and

FIG. 10 shows a sectional view of an embodiment attached to prefabricated steps.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIG. 1 of the drawings, 10 illustrates the safety barrier post of the present invention being attached to a slab 11 of a multistoried building under construction. Safety barrier post 10 has a post 12 which may be conventional steel pipe but could also be a wooden 2X4 post or other materials which are conventionally available. Post 12 is shown connected to the clamp portion 13 having upper jaws 15 attached to the upper and lower side of the slab 11 respectively. Lower jaw 15 has a tubular portion 16 connected thereto and extending below which is slidable on a rod 17. A group of pawls 18 is flexibly connected to tubular portion 16 so as to engage the rod 17 when it is moved up to the desired location against the slab 11 and to lock it onto rod 17 at that point. This provides a quick attachment for the clamp 13. The upper portion of rod 17 has attached to it an internally threaded member with an externally threaded screw 20, and having a handle 21 on one end thereof and which may be rotated to push the other end of the screw 20 against the upper plate 14, thus drawing the rod 17 upward by the force of the screw 20 being driven against the plate 14 tightening jaws l4 and 15 against slab 11 which will be described in more detail in connection with FIG. 3. The post support mechanism 13 also has guides or slot 22 for in serting a kick rail 23 which may be a piece of lumber such as a 2X4 or 2X6, inserted into the guide rail 22 between a pair of posts 10, as required by some building codes and as an additional safety feature. Cables 24 can be seen passing'perpendicular to the elongated post 12 held to the post by cable holders 25 which as shown in this view may be built directly into the post 12 as will be described later and may be rigidly attached to post 12. Cable holder 25 has offset portions 26 which prevent the cable from escaping when in a taut position as shown but when loose, or when sufficient force is applied to bend the cable to follow the offset portions, the cable may be removed from cable holder 25 between the ends of the cable 24 without disconnecting the cable at its ends. The end post 26 can be seen supporting the end of cables 24 in cable locking members 27 which may provide for the passing of cables therethrough and the holding of the cable by stacked series of pawls 28 similar to the pawls 18, which will allow the cable to slide in one direction and will lock it from sliding in the reverse direction unless released. It should of course be realized that any cable gripping mechanism can be used without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The end post 26, in addition to its post-holding clamping member is shown as also having a corner post brace 30, having an oblique post 31 connected to a post holder 32 which may be the same or similar to the post-holding member 13 except that it would not normally need the guides for kick rail. Post 31 has attaching member 33 for attaching post 31 to post 26 at a pivot 34 of the corner brace 30. It may not always be needed but is useful for very long safety barriers in which the cables 24 are pulled very tightly to put a large torque between two end posts 26.

As can be seen at this point, the present safety barrier post device may be separated between the post 12 and post support 13. Post support 13 may be slid onto a slab and the lower plate lslid up to clamp onto the slab 11. The screw-adjusting device may be rotated to tighten the jaws l4 and in a much tighter hold than might be otherwise accomplished. After the post-supporting member 13 has been attached to the slab 11 the post 12 may be attached thereto and after a series of these posts have been set up, kick rails 23 may he slid into place and cables 24 run between the two end posts and tightened up in the cable tightening and locking member 27 following insertion of the cable through the offset portions 26 into the cable holders 25. Comer braces 30 may be attached to the slab 11 prior to the final tightening of the cables 24 if the corner brace 30 is being used. Thus a safety barrier or fence has been provided in which kick rails and various level cables may be used and which may be easily transported from site to site, quickly attached and disattached for rapid use with a minimum of labor while meeting rigid safety requirements.

Referring now to FIG. 2 another view can now be seen of the safety barrier post and post support 10 attached to slab 11 having the post 12 upper clamping jaws 14, rod 17, the upper screw fixture 35 connected to rod 17 and being internally threaded for the external threads on screw which has a handle 21 attached thereto for rotating the screw 20 in the thread in member 35. Post 12 can be seen as being easily attachable to a holding member 36 which in this case is illustrated as a rod such as a solid steel cylinder which is rigidly attached to the upper jaw 14 whereby the post 12 may be slid onto rod 36. It will of course be clear that rod 36 could be a rigid steel pipe for the post 12 to slide into or other quickly attachable means for attaching the post 12 to the post support and clamping means 13. The cable-locking member 27 can also be seen as having the pawls 28 for locking the cable 24 at the end post 26 of the safety barricade. The kick rail 23 may also be clearly seen in this view being held in kick rail guides 22 which may have openings 37 therein for locking kick rails 23 in place with a nail or similar member which may be easily removed for disassembling the barricade.

Referring now to FIG. 3, there may be seen another view of the apparatus of the present invention 10 having a post 12 being attached to a slab 11 with post 12 being held to the post holding and clamping member 13 by the rod 36 which is shown welded to upperjaw 14 at 38. The lowerjaw 15 can be seen to be slidably mounted to rod 17 by the tubular member 16 which has the pawls 17 biased by spring 40 in a manner that the jaw 15 may be slid in one direction upward and will be held at the position against slab 11. Rod 17 has member 35 attached to the top thereof by screwing, welding, or the like, and has internal threads 41 threaded to screw 20 which has a handle 21 attached to the top thereof and the bar 42 of screw 20 drive against a member of 43 such as a part of upper jaw 14 which also provides the upper guide for rod 17. Thus rotating of the handle 21 rotates the screw 20 in the thread 41 of member 35 forcing the member 35 upward along with rod 17 and tightening the bottom jaw 15 more snugly against slab 11. Clamping mechanism may be easily removed by loosening the clamp by rotating the screw 20 and pulling the bottom clamp 15 loose. This view illustrates post 12 as having the cableholding member 25 formed directly in the post 12, but it should be realized that other means are contemplated as bolding the cables 24 to the post 12, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows the upper jaw 14 as the clamping mechanism having a post 12 held onto a postholder rod 36 with a cable 24 passing through cable-holding member 25 and also having kick rail holding member 22 with the end portion of the kick rail 23 therein and having the threaded screw 20 threaded into member 35 which is fixedly connected to rod 17.

FIG. 5 shows a broken away sectional view more clearly illustrating the movable end portion of screw 20 which is rotatably connected to member 35 which is in turn fixedly connected to rod 17 for locking the upperjaw 14 onto slab 11. This lower portion 42 slides in a cylindrical bore 43 having a locking pin 44 which engages in an angular groove 45 preventing the screw 20 from sliding from the member 35 which is fixedly attached to jaw 14 by weld 46 but which of course could be attached by other means.

Turning now to FIGS. 6 through 8, a pair of embodiments of the cable-holding means for the past 12 is illustrated in section having cable 24 passing therethrough. FIG. 6 shows the holding means 25 built into the post 12 and having an oblique opening 47 formed by portions 26 of the post and forming a part of the cable-holding means which are all set or angled in a manner that when the cable 24 is taut it cannot escape from the post 12, but when appropriate forces are applied while the cable is loosened, it may be angles between its ends in a manner to remove it from the post. This operates the same as in FIGS. 7 and 8 which have cable holder 48 rigidly attached to the post and forming the steel wire or rod, or the like, wrapped around the cable 24 with offset end portions 50 which are separated along a horizontal line but which similar to FIG. 6 allow the cable 24 to be inserted or removed when slack or with a sufficient force to bend the cable for the desired angle or shape but prevents escape when cable 24 is taut. Cable-holding member 48 may be attached to post 12 such as by welding with a weld 51 but of course could be held by other means.

FIG. 9 shows a second embodiment of a post 52 which is a square post which for instance could be 4X4 wooden post and has an external post holder 53 for sliding the post 51 into and may have holes 54 for locking the post 52 in place such as with a nail. The guide for post holder 53 may be welded to the upper jaw 14 by weld 55. The remaining portion of this embodiment could be the same or similar to the one described in FIGS. 1 through 5, but would be especially adapted to building sites in which wooden posts were readily available to prevent transporting extra steel pipe to the site. The wooden posts of course are more flexible to work with when building special arrangements or special safety barriers.

FIG. 10 illustrates yet another embodiment having a post 12 with cables 24 attached thereto and an upper jaw 14 similar to the previous embodiment. This embodiment also has screw 20 with a handle 21 and the screw passing through a fixture 35 to slide on rod 17. However, this embodiment has a flexible lower jaw which is shown in this instance as having a pair of shackles 61 flexibly connecting the jaw 60 to rod 17 whereby the jaw 60 can be placed at an angle as desired for an odd shaped object especially in case of stairs such as 62, so that this embodiment may be used on slabs such as 11 but also may be used on an angled or other shaped objects to provide additional flexibility for additional uses of the present barrier post.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that a movable safety barrier post has been provided for erecting a safety barrier or barricade for use during construction, but it will also be clear that the post and barricade described can have other uses and that variations are anticipated for the invention without departing from the scope thereof. For instance, for a gate post to have a swinging gate or when additional strength might be desired, the comer post as described could be utilized. However, it might also be desirable to have a telescoping portion on the top of the post for attaching a similar clamp and supporting arrangement to the upper and lower slab giving additional strength for a swinging gate or where unusual strength is desired. Accordingly, this invention is not to be construed as limited to the particular forms disclosed herein since these are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

I claim:

1. A movable safety barrier post comprising in combination: post support means, said post support means having a pair of clamp means for attaching said post support means to an object and having first and second post holding means for holding a post thereto; each said clamp means having a quicklocking means for quickly attaching said clamp means to said object and a separate tightening means for additional tightening of said clamp means whereby said post support means can be rapidly attached to an object in a secure manner; an elongated post removably attached to said post support means by said first and second post-holding means; each said post having at least one cable holding means for maintaining a cable to said post, said first post holding means being attached to the bottom portion of said post and said second post-holding means being attached between the ends of said post whereby said post may be held from two positions simultaneously and said first post-holding means also having a kick rail attaching means including a slotted guide having an opening therein for inserting a fastening therethrough and into a kick rail, locking said kick rail in place in said slotted guide.

2. A movable barrier post comprising in combination post support means, each said post support means having clamp means for attaching said post support means to an object and having post-holding means for holding a post on said post support means, said elongated post removably attached to said post support means by said post-holding means, each said post having at least one cable-holding means for maintaining a cable to said post and said clamping means having an angled jaw including a pair of perpendicular intersecting flat surfaces one said fiat surface having a post attaching means thereon and at least one sleeve attached thereto with a rod passing through said sleeve, and a rod actuating means for sliding said rod in said sleeve upon rotation of said rod actuating means for sliding said rod in said sleeve upon rotation of said rod actuating means, said rod having a second jaw movably attached thereto whereby said jaws may be tightened onto an object having one side oblique to the other. 

1. A movable safety barrier post comprising in combination: post support means, said post support means having a pair of clamp means for attaching said post support means to an object and having first and second post holding means for holding a post thereto; each said clamp means having a quick-locking means for quickly attaching said clamp means to said object and a separate tightening means for additional tightening of said clamp means whereby said post support means can be rapidly attached to an object in a secure manner; an elongated post removably attached to said post support means by said first and second post-holding means; each said post having at least one cable holding means for maintaining a cable to said post, said first post holding means being attached to the bottom portion of said post and said second post-holding means being attached between the ends of said post whereby said post may be held from two positions simultaneously and said first post-holding means also having a kick rail attaching means including a slotted guide having an opening therein for inserting a fastening therethrough and into a kick rail, locking said kick rail in place in said slotted guide.
 2. A movable barrier post comprising in combination post support means, each said post support means having clamp means for attaching said post support means to an object and having post-holding means for holding a post on said post support means, said elongated post removably attached to said post support means by said post-holding means, each said post having at least one cable-holding means for maintaining a cable to said post and said clamping means having an angled jaw including a pair of perpendicular intersecting flat surfaces one said flat surface having a post attaching means thereon and at least one sleeve attached thereto with a rod passing through said sleeve, and a rod actuating means for sliding said rod in said sleeve upon rotation of said rod actuating means, said rod having a second jaw movably attached thereto for clamping one jaw to either side of an object, whereby said jaws may be tightened onto an object having one side oblique to the other. 